I, You, He, She

Chantal Akerman, Director
1974 : Belgium : 90 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
Conflict-ridden relationship between a woman and her lover and
a strange man. Features an 18-minute love scene between the two
women.

The Life that We Dreamt

Het Leven dat we Droomden

Robbe de Hert, Director
1981 : Belgium : Lesbian : Drama :
Two women fall in love with the same man, but soon discover that
they love each other.

FINLAND

The Farewell

Avskedet

Tuija-Maija Niskanen, Director
1980 : Finland/Sweden : 90 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
In the 1930s, a young Finnish woman defies her tyrannical father
to have a relationship with a young German woman. In Finnish
with English subtitles.

FRANCE

Bad Girls

Les Biches

Claude Chabrol, Director
1968 : France: : 99 minutes : Lesbian/Bisexual : Drama :
A young woman (Jacqueline Sassard) who is picked up by a stylish
Parisian woman (Stephane Audran) and taken away for the summer
gets her own back after being spurned for another. This is the
'Lesbianism as best avoided' school of voyeur cinema, but unique
in its time.

The Banker

La Banquiere

Francis Girod, Director
1980 : France : Lesbian : Drama :
The rise and fall of a masculine self-made bank president in the
1920s in Paris.

French Twist

Gazon Maudit

Josiane Balasko, Director
1995 : France : 107 minutes : Lesbian/Bisexual : Comedy :
When super-butch Marijo, a DJ and handywoman, drives her hippie
van through town, it breaks down at Loli's house. Loli is the
neglected, Spanish-emigre wife of Laurent, a philandering real-
estate agent. Marijo asks to use the phone, Loli says yes, and
the stage is set for the most original slant on the French sex
farce to come along in years. In French with English subtitles.

Olivia

Pit of Loneliness

Jacqueline Audry, Director
1950 : France : 100 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
In the latter half of the 1800s, an English schoolgirl falls
deeply in love with one of her headmistresses in the French
boarding school she attends.

Therese and Isabelle

Zoe The Boxer

Karim Dridi, Director
1992 : France : 24 minutes : Transsexual : Drama :
A clever faux documentary which examines the story of a female
boxer who became a man and murdered her manager.

GERMANY

Anna und Elisabeth

Frank Wysbar, Director
1933 : Germany : Lesbian : Drama :
A peasant girl's touch heals the paralysis of the lady of the
manor, and the lady soon discovers that she can't live without
the girl.

Anna und Edith

Gerrit Neuhaus, Director
1975 : West Germany : Lesbian : Drama :
Made-for-German-TV movie about two clerical workers who
fall in love while trying to get better working conditions.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Die Bitteren Tranen der Petra von Kant

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Director
1972 : West Germany : 124 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
A decadent fashion designer plays the dominant role in a
sado-masochistic relationship with one of her employees, but
she meets someone who turns the tables on her.

Depart to Arrive

Weggehen um Anzukommen

Alexandra von Grote, Director
1981 : West Germany : Lesbian : Drama :
The story of the separation of a photographer and a journalist
from the photographer's point of view.

Erika's Passions

Erikas Leidenschaften

Ula Stockl, Director
1978 : West Germany : Lesbian : Drama :
A butch lesbian and her femme lover are accidentally locked
in a room together after a long separation and are forced to
confront each other's differences and complaints.

Girls in Uniform

Madchen in Uniform

Leontine Sagan, Director
1931 : Germany : 89 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
Considered by many to be the first radical lesbian-feminist
film, in which a student at a repressive authoritarian Prussian
boarding school finds comfort only in the companionship of a
sympathetic teacher. It was remade in 1958 in English. See the
original German version.

Handel und Wandel

Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia

Ulrike Ottinger, Director
1988 : West Germany : 35 minutes : Lesbian : Adventure :
Our heroine is invited on a trip by an affluent older woman.
They travel to Mongolia where they are kidnaped by Mongolian
Amazons, and the adventure begins.

Novembermoon

Pandora's Box

G. W. Pabst, Director
1928 : Germany : 110 minutes : Bisexual/Lesbian :
Silent screen classic about a girl whose loose morals take her
from promiscuity to whoredom to a fatal encounter with Jack the
Ripper. Along the way, she has a torrid affair with a lesbian
countess and the countess's stepson.

Seduction: The Cruel Woman

Verfuhrung: die grausame Frau

Monika Treut, Director
1985 : West Germany : 84 minutes : Bisexual/Lesbian : Drama :
Wanda is a gallery owner in Hamburg specializing in S/M art.
Being a dominatrix isn't easy for her when she insists that all
is performance, but her clients and would-be lovers want a
"real" relationship.

The Virgin Machine

What Shall We Do Without Death

Elfi Mikesch, Director
1980 : West Germany : 105 minutes : Lesbian :
A female couple who have vowed to spend the rest of their
lives together are the focus of this film about a retirement
home in Hamburg.
[Documentary]

ITALY

La Fuga

To Forget Venice

Dimenticare Venezia

Franco Brusati, Director
1979 : Italy : 105 minutes : Lesbian/Gay : Drama :
In 1920s Italy, Anna and Claudia live in the country with Anna's
Aunt Marta. Anna and Claudia have become bored with each other,
but one day Aunt Marta's brother Nicky shows up with his young
lover Picchio, and things start to change.

THE NETHERLANDS

Belle

1993 : The Netherlands : 99 minutes : Lesbian/Bisexual : Drama :
Irma Achten, Director
Existential tale of a woman in search of herself and meaning in
her life. Belle's lifelong commitment to her lover, Marthe, is
the emotional lynchpin of her life. But when Belle's desperate
desire for independence mutates into an obsession with power
and control, she pushes Marthe out of her life. Still, though
she marries to gain independence, her repressed love for Marthe
continues to influence her life.

A Woman Like Eve

Een Vrouw als Eva

Nouchka van Brakel, Director
1979 : The Netherlands : 90 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
On vacation in France, a married Dutch woman falls in love with
a French lesbian. When she attempts to divorce her husband, a
bitter custody battle ensues.

SPAIN

Costa Brava

Marta Balletbo-Coll, Director
1996 : Spain : 92 minutes : Lesbian : Comedy :
Anna is a tour guide/performance artist trying to raise money to
mount her latest monologue-in-progress and take it to San Francisco,
her "Holy Grail". Instead she gets sidetracked by a bisexual seismic
engineer named Montserrat. The problem? Anna is a hotheaded
narcissist, and Monserrat is a buttoned-down, sexually unresolved
scientist. Opposites
attract, but can they stick together?

Entre Tinieblas

Dark Habits

Pedro Almodovar, Director
1983 : Spain : 95 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
In a convent in Madrid, the Mother Superior has fallen in love
with the female singer Yolanda. A hard-eged, intentionally
offensive religious satire, not as original or as funny as
Almodovar's later films.

Extramuros

1985 : Spain : Lesbian : Drama :
A dark story of love and ambition behind convent walls. Sister
Angela decides to fake stigmata to save her convent from ruin;
her devoted lover reluctantly agrees. But Angela's scam brings
them unexpected fame as well as new enemies who could destroy
their relationship.

Pepi, Luci, Bom (and Other Girls in the Heap)

UK

Butterfly Kiss

Michael Winterbottom, Director
1995 : UK : 88 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
This harrowing film of obsession, murder, and dependence
begins when Eunice, a passionate and impulsive psychopath,
meets Miriam, a lonely, introverted, and naive young woman
who works at a gas station, cares for infirm mother, and
constantly eats noodles. Eunice completely dominates Miriam
with her directness and power. They embark on a search for
Judith, the only person who ever loved or accepted Eunice
before Miriam, and along the way Eunice constantly tests
Miriam's devotion. Miriam sticks with her, though, even
after she discovers that Eunice likes to pick up and murder
men.

Confession of a Pretty Lady

Kris Clarke and Sarah Mortimer, Directors
1993 : UK : 70 minutes : Lesbian :
Everything you ever wanted to know about Sandra Bernhard, from
home movies to interviews with her mother, aunt, uncle, directors
she's worked with, famous people who know her, and extensive
footage taken from her movie and stage performances.
[Documentary]

Domestic Bliss

Flesh & Paper

1990 : UK : Lesbian :
The life and writings of the lesbian writer and poet Suniti
Namjoshi, who is from an Indian royal family and resides in
England. Includes interviews with her friends and with the
young Indian women who take her as a role model.
[Documentary]

The Gold Diggers

In This House of Brede

George Schaefer, Director
1975 : UK : 100 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
A young nun gets a crush on older one who wants to reciprocate
but cannot.

The Killing of Sister George

Robert Aldrich, Director
1968 : USA/UK : 153 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
An aging lesbian actress loses everything, including her young
lover, when the character she plays on a BBC soap opera gets
killed off. Note that although this film was produced jointly
by the US and the UK, it takes place in London, features a
famous British lesbian bar, and almost everyone in the cast
is British.

Miss A and Miss M

1987 : UK : 60 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
A young girl slowly becomes aware of the true nature of the
relationship between two school teachers.

Nocturne

Joy Chamberlain, Director
1990 : UK : Lesbian : Drama :
A woman returns home for her mother's funeral and meets memories
which are the key both to her self-repression and her desire.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

Beeban Kidron, Director
1989 : UK : 144 minutes, theatrical version; 3x120 minute episodes,
mini-series version : Lesbian : Drama :
Coming of age story about an iron-willed young woman who's been
raised in a strict evangelical environment, and whose lesbianism
scandalizes her equally iron-willed adoptive mother, and pretty
much the rest of the church, too. Made by the BBC from the
semi-autobigraphical -- and often very funny -- first novel
by Jeannette Winterson.

A Place of Rage

Portrait of a Marriage

Stephen Whittaker, Director
1990 : UK : Lesbian/Bisexual : 4x50 minute episodes :
Biographical Drama :
A made-for-TV period drama series featuring the relationships
among Violet Keppel and Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson
(played by Cathryn Harrison, Janet McTeer and David Haigh).
Sumptuously made by the BBC and co-produced by WGBH. Based on
the book by Vita and her son, Nigel Nicolson.

Sister, My Sister

Nancy Meckler, Director
1994 : UK : 102 minutes : Lesbian : Drama :
Raised in a convent and separated at an early age, sisters
Christine and Lea are reunited in the house of the tyrannical
Madame Danzard, where they work as maids. Slaving away
under the cruel eye of their mistress, they become acquainted
with each other while battling demons of abuse and neglect.
Tensions build to the breaking point when the Madame's
daughter, Isabelle, triggers Christine's jealousy and fear of
abandonment. Finally, when Madame becomes suspicious
of the true nature of the sisters' love for each other, the
stage is set for tragedy.

We've Been Framed

Women Like That

Suzanne Neild, Director
1991 : UK : 25 minutes : Lesbian :
Follows eight of sixteen lesbians who participated in the 1990
British TV documentary "Women Like Us." Here the women discuss
how their lives have changed since the broadcast of the original
program.
[Documentary]

Working Class Dykes From Hell

Jacquie Lawrence, Director
1992 : UK : 20 minutes : Lesbian :
A Made-for-BBC look at working class British lesbians, who
talk about class differences in the lesbian community,
organizing political consciousness, and developing a sense
of community.
[Documentary]

NOTES & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Don't be shy about e-mailing me any GLBO-centered films that you don't
find on this list, folks, but remember that to qualify for this list a
film has to either be *about* a central GLBO character or have a GLBO
character (or theme) so central to the plot that the film couldn't exist
the same way without that character (or theme). Please try to provide
as much information about the films as you can, including a capsule plot
summary, and don't forget to sign your name to your letters so that I
can acknowledge your contribution.

Please note that I have arbitrarily established a 30-minute
minimum length requirement for films to be included on this list.
This is because I view this list primarily as an entertainment
resource, and feel that if you're looking for a couple of films
to watch with your loved one(s) on a weekend, you're going to be
much more interested in feature-length films than you are in
experimental short subjects. There are literally hundreds of film
shorts from 1 minute in length to 29 minutes in length which do not
appear on this list, although if a film is, say, 25 minutes long
and is about a subject or group which doesn't get much film time
it just might find its way onto the list. Many, if not all, of the
distributors
above will provide you with a catalog of their films,
including film shorts.

For more information regarding these and other GLBO-centered
materials, notably books, periodicals, music, and some film
shorts, get yourself a copy of this outstanding reference book:

Many thanks to Ellen Greenblatt for giving me access to the film
lists from this excellent resource book.

Another book I used to compile this list is "The Celluloid Closet"
by Vito Russo. Russo's book is mostly about Hollywood's mistreatment
of gay characters in films, but by the last chapter, films featuring
accurate, sensitive, or at least interesting portrayals start showing
up with more regularity.

Two books that will be of great help making this list accurate
and complete (and that every film buff will want to have) are
"Gay Hollywood, Film and Video Guide" by Steve Stewart, and
"Images in the Dark, An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and
Video" by Raymond Murray.

A thousand thanks to Frameline of San Francisco, without whose
"San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival" program
booklets, this would be a *much* shorter list!
And finally, thanks for the contributions from: